Harrisburg man sentenced to one year in prison for failing to pay employment taxes

 

Date: December 15, 2023

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

HARRISBURG — The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Sam Xen Duong of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo to one year in prison for failing to withhold and pay employment taxes. The Court also ordered a one-year term of supervised release to follow the term of imprisonment and over $1.5 million in restitution.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Duong previously admitted that between 2012 and 2018, he failed to pay employment taxes for two companies that he owned or co-owned, BCS, Inc., and ETS, Inc. Both companies were located in Harrisburg and provided temporary workers to other businesses. To perpetuate his scheme, Duong often paid employees in cash and submitted false forms to the Internal Revenue Service.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (CI). Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlo D. Marchioli prosecuted the case.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.